Michael Kownacky

What were you doing when you were 14?If you were Mozart, you were working on a three act opera titled “Mitridate re di Ponto” which is our featured work on this week’s Sunday Opera (2/15 3:00 p.m.) in a recording from 2014.

We’re celebrating a birthday on this week’s Dress Circle (2/15 7:00 p.m.).Actually, we’re celebrating two birthdays. This week’s program begins our 43rd year as volunteer hosts of the Dress Circle, a fact of which we’re extremely proud. Since that, in itself, isn’t very musical, we’re also going to be celebrating the 121st birthday of Hyman Arluck who is better known as the fabulous composer of musicals and film songs, Harold Arlen.

for this week’s program (2/8 3:00 p.m.), we’re heading back to the 18th century for an opera that takes place around the 12th century BC in Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Demonfoonte” or “Demofonte” or a variety of other titles. Based on a very popular libretto by Pietro Metastasio, the opera had its premier in Milan in 1743. The story is set in ancient Thrace during a “legendary and mythical” time.

Once again, we’re getting ready for Valentine’s Day on this week’s Dress Circle (2/8 7:00 p.m.), and even if you don’t have a Valentine per se, you should really treat yourself by tuning in this week for “Non Love Love Songs” for the day that you make as special as you want. These are “Non-Love Love Songs” because they aren’t the usual “Moon – June – Spoon – I love you songs” one generally expects at this time. These, sometimes in a rather sneaky manner, hint or imply love and possible happy endings.

We turn to England for this week’s Sunday Opera (2/1 3:00 p.m.) for the only full-length opera by Sir William Walton, his 1954 treatment of a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer about the doomed love of “Troilus and Cressida." This recording from Opera North features a roster of some of the best-loved voices in British opera.

It seems as though we just went through the holidays, and we’re already starting February! To that end, we’re welcoming the month with overtures and opening numbers from ten February musicals on this week’s Dress Circle (2/1 7:00 p.m.).

As promised, we’ll be looking at two operettas on this week’s Sunday Opera (1/25 3:00 p.m.), Joseph Beer’s “The Polish Wedding” and Leo Fall’s “The Rose of Istanbul.”

More French music is coming your way on this week’s Dress Circle (1/25 7:00 p.m.) as we look at “It’s So French, Part 2.” We're looking at five stage musicals that all originated in France including "La Revolution Francaise" and "The Red and the Black."

We’re turning to a 21st century American opera by Joseph Summer on this week’s Sunday Opera (1/18 3:00 p.m.) in his treatment of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” The 2006 work stays very close to the original play (unlike the Ambroise Thomas), and the straightforward treatment of the text by Summer, fits neatly into his three-act structure.

We’re beginning a two-part program that may extend to others on this week’s Dress Circle (1/18 7:00 p.m.) as we sample four original French musicals. These are not French translations of English language works as we’ve done in the past but works that began as French originals, and this program will look at two stage and two screen musicals.